The adventure of living on a sailing boat, with a toddler …

Tag Archives: Non-toys

It never ceases to amaze me how much Orbit enjoys playing with his ‘non-toys’. Non-toys are things that Orbit plays with, which were designed for something other than entertaining toddlers.

A zip tie garden

I have already posted about Orbit’s ‘non toys’ when he was younger and he still plays with some of them, but in a different way. For example Orbit still loves playing with the Skipper’s zip ties. Instead of being satisfied with just threading the zip ties so they lock, he makes zip tie flowers. Orbit loves giving them to the Skipper and I, or anyone else on Medina at the time. This week he combined zip tie flowers with play dough and made ‘zip tie’ gardens.

Ropes are another non-toy that has lasted into toddler-hood. Lucky we live on a sailing boat, we have plenty of ropes! Orbit is genuinely interested in how they knot together. We were in the process of teach Orbit how to tie knots, just the simple ones, but that has been put on a slight delay until his finger heals and the splint on his arm can come off. The splint hasn’t stopped him doing many things. It has been wonderfully reassuring to see him adapt to everyday tasks and not be afraid to hurt himself. But learning to tie a knot with one hand is hard enough for an adult (something I am yet to master), so it might be a bit much to expect a three year old to learn.

One of Orbit’s coat hanger sculptures

A recently discovered non-toy was a set of spare coat hangers. We are lucky to have hanging space on Medina, and I always kept a small stash of spare plastic coat hangers stored away, for what reason I am not sure, and now they have a very good use. Orbit found them the other day and spends a great deal of time (toddler equivalent of time that is) making lovely ‘sculptures’ in the cockpit. Once he completes a sculpture, he announces “I did it, I did it. Mummy, photo, Mummy photo please”.

One of my concerns about raising a baby/toddler/child in a small space and on a sailing boat, was keeping him entertained. But slowly I am coming to realise I don’t need to keep him entertained, he does that himself. I just need to give him the freedom, the space to use his imagination, and to support him, then its just a case of enjoying his self-learning journey.

Do your kids like playing with non-toys? If so I’d love to hear what they are and how they play with them.

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